offering food to Krsna

[vraja1]

If one wants to become a devotee, one should offer all of their food to the Lord. At first, this may seem like a hassle, but if one realizes the spiritual benefit of being freed from karmic reactions and avoiding the sin of unofferred food, it becomes worth it.

 

One should not offer food to Krsna cooked by a non-devotee. All food should be cooked while thinking of Krsna and with the desire to please him. Food can be precooked if it was prepared by a machine, but if a non-devotee cooked it, the non-devotee puts his consciousness into the food that he cooks and thus Krsna will not accept.

 

Cleanliness is very important. It is best to take a bath and to offer in clean clothes before offering. Clean clothes can be saved to offer in later. Any clothes in which one wore while on the toilet or ate in are considered dirty.

Therefore one should save their clean clothes to use for offering to Krsna.

 

If one touches their mouth or nose while cooking, they must immediately wash their hands.

 

To offer the food, it is best to wait 15 minutes after cooking if the food is hot, before offering it. One should wait no longer than 30 minutes before offering. Put the food on metal bowls or drinks in metal pitchers or cups and place them in front of a picture of Krsna and say, "Lord Krsna, please accept this food and forgive me for my mistakes." Chant "Hare Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna Krsna Hare Hare

Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare" 3 times. One can learn the required mantras from an authentic guru later on, if he is lucky enough to come in contact with one. One should offer with love and devotion.

 

 

There are certain foods that Krsna accepts and certain foods that he will not. Of course, Krsna does not accept any non-vegeterian foods (including eggs or fish) or foods mixed with animal products such as rennet or gelatin, or any intoxicants including caffeinated things like coffee, tea, or chocolate. Out of the vegetarian food, mushrooms, onions, and garlic are the worst and are considered in the mode of ignorance, hence he will not accept them. Some other foods that Krsna will not accept include:

beets

carrots

lentils

red dahl

maple syrup

tree gum

radishes

vinegar

foods that are so hot, salty, sour, or bitter that they cannot be

eaten with pleasure

foods that are tasteless, stale, putrid, or untouchable

 

Krsna will accept any milk product (provided that it is not, for example, cheese mixed with rennet)

 

Also, one should not eat food which has been eaten by others, except for that which has been eaten by an authentic Spiritual Master.

 

One should not eat from the same plate/bowls/cups that Krsna has been served.

If one does, he should not use them again for offering.

[cbrahma]

There are actually a lot more rules than that. More than I am willing and able to follow in a practical workaday regimen. You really can't wash the plates that you eat out of in the kitchen where prasadam was cooked...and there are more. No thanks. I'm just not a devotee I guess. Another reason I stopped chanting.

[yogesh]

As my mother always says Lord Krsna is not hungary for the food we offer him but he is hungary for the love and devotion we put into when offering him the food.

 

Try your best and dont forget the most important ingrediant above all else your love and devotion.

 

Cbrahma please dont throw the baby out with the bath water. Just throw the dirty water (the water that is causing you to abandon your devotion and love) out.

 

Lord Chaitanya has made it so easy and sublime for us to break the cycle of birth and death.

 

I remember reading a pastime of Lord Chaitanya where some Brahmanas were laughing at another brahman priest who was illiterate and had the Gita opened and was looking at the pages and crying.

 

When inquired from the illiterate Brahman priest why he was crying? He replied that it was so amazing that the Lord personally spoke the words he was touching on the pages of the Gita.

 

This illterate brahman was more advanced than the other so called brahmanas who could read and recite the verses most ellequently from the Gita because he had realized the Lord on a personal level beyond the formalities and rituals of "religion"

 

Hare Krsna/Krishna

Jay Sirla Prabhupada

[cbrahma]

 

Lord Chaitanya has made it so easy and sublime for us to break the cycle of birth and death

The prasadam protocol is anything but easy.

[yogesh]

 

The prasadam protocol is anything but easy.

 

My mother at the biginning some years ago also said the same thing but you know what she perservered and shut the nonsense voice in her head about making a mistake because she truly loved the Lord so much she was willing to take risk of punishment for making a mistake. Anyway what kind of Loving God do you think would punish his child if they made a mistake when their intentions are tinged with love and devotion???

 

SO Just Do It!!. Try your best he is more interested in your love and devotion and not so much on rituals.

 

I am sure you are practising vegetarian. SO give it a go. You have more to gain than to loose.

 

Hare Krsna/Krishna

 

Jay Sirla Prabhupada

[RadheyRadhey108]

I offer food to Annapurna and Radha-Krishna Annapurna is the mother of food, so we can't forget Her!

[RadheyRadhey108]

 

There are actually a lot more rules than that. More than I am willing and able to follow in a practical workaday regimen. You really can't wash the plates that you eat out of in the kitchen where prasadam was cooked...and there are more. No thanks. I'm just not a devotee I guess.

What a silly protocol Why would God care where you washed your dishes? Why don't you just offer your food and forget about the rest?

 

 

Another reason I stopped chanting.

Because of an idiotic protocol that Lord Krishna never asked for in the first place? Seems like a strange reason...

[cbrahma]

 

What a silly protocol Why would God care where you washed your dishes? Why don't you just offer your food and forget about the rest?

 

 

Because of an idiotic protocol that Lord Krishna never asked for in the first place? Seems like a strange reason...

These are the 'brahminical' protocols. Ask the traditional Vaisnavas or any ISKCON member. If this is brahminism then I clearly will never become a brahmana and only a brahmana can perform such a ritual.

[cbrahma]

 

My mother at the biginning some years ago also said the same thing but you know what she perservered and shut the nonsense voice in her head about making a mistake because she truly loved the Lord so much she was willing to take risk of punishment for making a mistake. Anyway what kind of Loving God do you think would punish his child if they made a mistake when their intentions are tinged with love and devotion???

 

SO Just Do It!!. Try your best he is more interested in your love and devotion and not so much on rituals.

 

I am sure you are practising vegetarian. SO give it a go. You have more to gain than to loose.

 

Hare Krsna/Krishna

 

Jay Sirla Prabhupada

If making a mistake is nonsense then why put myself through this impractical exhausting torture?

[AncientMariner]

 

As my mother always says Lord Krsna is not hungary for the food we offer him but he is hungary for the love and devotion we put into when offering him the food.

 

Try your best and dont forget the most important ingrediant above all else your love and devotion.

 

Cbrahma please dont throw the baby out with the bath water. Just throw the dirty water (the water that is causing you to abandon your devotion and love) out.

 

Lord Chaitanya has made it so easy and sublime for us to break the cycle of birth and death.

 

I remember reading a pastime of Lord Chaitanya where some Brahmanas were laughing at another brahman priest who was illiterate and had the Gita opened and was looking at the pages and crying.

 

When inquired from the illiterate Brahman priest why he was crying? He replied that it was so amazing that the Lord personally spoke the words he was touching on the pages of the Gita.

 

This illterate brahman was more advanced than the other so called brahmanas who could read and recite the verses most ellequently from the Gita because he had realized the Lord on a personal level beyond the formalities and rituals of "religion"

 

Hare Krsna/Krishna

Jay Sirla Prabhupada

 

 

 

That is a very good example. I also really like the story of Jada Bharata because it has some similarities to your story. Jada Bharata's father tryed to train him to become the perfect brahmana but Jada Bharata behaved like an absolute idiot so his father would quit trying to teach him to become the perfect brahmana. Absolutely a divine story because it seems to go against all conventional thinking about Krishna Consciousness but at the same time reveals the complete transcendence of Krishna and devotional service.

[cbrahma]

 

That is a very good example. I also really like the story of Jada Bharata because it has some similarities to your story. Jada Bharata's father tryed to train him to become the perfect brahmana but Jada Bharata behaved like an absolute idiot so his father would quit trying to teach him to become the perfect brahmana. Absolutely a divine story because it seems to go against all conventional thinking about Krishna Consciousness but at the same time reveals the complete transcendence of Krishna and devotional service.

Yes but illiterate brahmanas ( a contradiction in terms) and domestic mothers don't have to hold down a job.

[AncientMariner]

 

Yes but illiterate brahmanas ( a contradiction in terms) and domestic mothers don't have to hold down a job.

 

 

I think what yogesh was saying is that the love you put into your devotion is more important than following every rule down to the nth degree even as a working man. Don't know for sure but the sense I get from Bhagavad Gita is to keep performing your duties and think of Krishna while you do them and then Krishna will protect you from sinful reactions and reveal the way so to speak.

[cbrahma]

 

I think what yogesh was saying is that the love you put into your devotion is more important than following every rule down to the nth degree even as a working man. Don't know for sure but the sense I get from Bhagavad Gita is to keep performing your duties and think of Krishna while you do them and then Krishna will protect you from sinful reactions and reveal the way so to speak.

It's really totally confusing. Did you see the list of things you can offer and not offer. Just avoiding all the special stuff, animal contaminants is a whole project. That's even before you start cooking.

Who knows what Krsna wants when it comes to the details of cooking?

And then if he is so high maintenance, then it's really not a job that I can or want to handle. Being vegetarian is complicated enough. Do you offer your food?

[yogesh]

 

Yes but illiterate brahmanas ( a contradiction in terms) and domestic mothers don't have to hold down a job.

 

The voice in the head is realy loud. So you think only by adhering to brahmanical standards will we be on platform to get the Lords loving attention??

 

So a child will never get the parents love even if the effort they put in is not perfect??

 

Thank God because the God I know is not vengefull/spitefull.

 

Oh by the way domestic work is also a job ask any parents.

 

You spend so much time on this forum justifying your inability to find time to cook food and offer it with love and devotion??

 

Unless your job entails working on the internet chat sites.

 

Any way I suppose if you think you are not good enough to cook for God then who am I to say otherwise.

 

Wishing you all the best in your job.

 

Hare Krsna/Krishna

Jay Sirla Prabhupada

[AncientMariner]

 

It's really totally confusing. Did you see the list of things you can offer and not offer. Just avoiding all the special stuff, animal contaminants is a whole project. That's even before you start cooking.

Who knows what Krsna wants when it comes to the details of cooking?

And then if he is so high maintenance, then it's really not a job that I can or want to handle. Do you offer your food?

 

 

Years ago when I first started reading Prabhupadas books I worried like hell about doing everything absolutely perfect and really beat myself up almost to the point of death and depression if I didn't. I have completely gotten rid of that mindset and I just do my best in the environment I am in. I don't know if that means I have lost any chance to go back to Godhead but I feel a lot better about things since letting go of things that are impracticle for me. I don't offer my food in a Krishna Consciousness way but more in a Christian way in being thankful to God for the food. I find that way much simpler than deity worship and all that.

[vraja1]

 

There are actually a lot more rules than that. More than I am willing and able to follow in a practical workaday regimen. You really can't wash the plates that you eat out of in the kitchen where prasadam was cooked...and there are more. No thanks. I'm just not a devotee I guess. Another reason I stopped chanting.

 

There are a lot of rules. I have only been Krsna conscious for 3 years and do not know all of them yet. Plus, I am not initiated yet. Only recently did I find out about tree gum not being accepted. This is because trees received one quarter of King Indra's sin, and hence they now release sap. So tree sap contains sin.

 

I know a few people, including myself, who have a lot of work to do in a day, and they cook all their food for Krsna. The trick is to cook in large batches so you don't have to cook everyday. This saves time.

 

Not everyone wants to do everything it takes to be a devotee. To most, chanting seems more like an austerity than a pleasure. The metaphor about someone afflicted with jaundice tasting sugar and experiencing bitterness is relevant here. The first time I chanted I had no results. The second time I chanted, I got finished with one round, and I was surprised at the love that manifested in my heart. I think it depends on one's sincerity how much results one gets from chanting. I don't experience constant non-stop love all the time, but I feel some love for Krsna on and off. Anyways, after chanting one round the second time, I was convinced I should become a devotee. If chanting can do this, then the Vedic scriptures must be true, I thought, and if I can make it to Goloka I will experience bliss eternally. So, if the Vedic scriptures really are true (which I am sure they are), then becoming a devotee is worth it a thousand-fold (or a billion-fold) because the benefit one receives from Krsna consciousness are far more than one can imagine. What could be better than being in constant bliss and never having to experience misery ever again? Nothing can be achieved without going through some difficulty. If you want a degree, you'll have to do the work. And if you get it, your future becomes brighter. The same thing is true with spiritual life.

 

Anyways, most people don't have the right karma to become a real devotee. Only after accumulating enough merits over many lifetimes does one become a real devotee.

[cbrahma]

 

Years ago when I first started reading Prabhupadas books I worried like hell about doing everything absolutely perfect and really beat myself up almost to the point of death and depression if I didn't. I have completely gotten rid of that mindset and I just do my best in the environment I am in. I don't know if that means I have lost any chance to go back to Godhead but I feel a lot better about things since letting go of things that are impracticle for me. I don't offer my food in a Krishna Consciousness way but more in a Christian way in being thankful to God for the food. I find that way much simpler than deity worship and all that.

Yes a thanksgiving is one thing - but all this 'Vedic brahamana' stuff just about covinces me that being devotee in that traditional sense is a religious impossibility in a Western workaday world.

[theist]

 

beets

carrots

lentils

red dahl

maple syrup

tree gum

radishes

vinegar

 

OMG does this mean you are a tomato eater?!?!?

 

Please give us the rational behind avoiding beets carrots and radishes. Is it because they are really cows in disguise?

[cbrahma]

 

There are a lot of rules. I have only been Krsna conscious for 3 years and do not know all of them yet. Plus, I am not initiated yet. Only recently did I find out about tree gum not being accepted. This is because trees received one quarter of King Indra's sin, and hence they now release sap. So tree sap contains sin.

 

I know a few people, including myself, who have a lot of work to do in a day, and they cook all their food for Krsna. The trick is to cook in large batches so you don't have to cook everyday. This saves time.

 

Not everyone wants to do everything it takes to be a devotee. To most, chanting seems more like an austerity than a pleasure. The metaphor about someone afflicted with jaundice tasting sugar and experiencing bitterness is relevant here. The first time I chanted I had no results. The second time I chanted, I got finished with one round, and I was surprised at the love that manifested in my heart. I think it depends on one's sincerity how much results one gets from chanting. I don't experience constant non-stop love all the time, but I feel some love for Krsna on and off. Anyways, after chanting one round the second time, I was convinced I should become a devotee. If chanting can do this, then the Vedic scriptures must be true, I thought, and if I can make it to Goloka I will experience bliss eternally. So, if the Vedic scriptures really are true (which I am sure they are), then becoming a devotee is worth it a thousand-fold (or a billion-fold) because the benefit one receives from Krsna consciousness are far more than one can imagine. What could be better than being in constant bliss and never having to experience misery ever again? Nothing can be achieved without going through some difficulty. If you want a degree, you'll have to do the work. And if you get it, your future becomes brighter. The same thing is true with spiritual life.

 

Anyways, most people don't have the right karma to become a real devotee. Only after accumulating enough merits over many lifetimes does one become a real devotee.

There are more rules than you know. If you think jumping through hoops like a trick dog makes you a devotee - then all the more power to you. If that is what God is like - why would anybody care to serve him in the first place. I have a much larger, more merciful, less petty view of God.

[theist]

I suspect that list comes from NM. His disciples are of course free to follow it and should if they accept him as their guru. I forget where the story is in the puranas but it has something to do with a cow being killed and it's blood going into the earth and from that cow's blood carrots beets and other red colored vegetables had their beginning.

 

 

Krsna will accept any milk product (provided that it is not, for example, cheese mixed with rennet)

 

What is the value of taking this story literally and abstaining from carrots and yet at the same time participating in cow slaughter by drinking commercial milk.

[cbrahma]

I don't offer my food so it doesn't matter to me one way or the other - but to exclude things like beets is verging on fanaticism or at least Smarta brahmana. If you are going to get that nit-picking then you should be performing full on deity worship in which case milk products are required.

[vraja1]

There are so many rules in the Vedic scriptures, that only someone who has read all the scriptures can follow all of them. We do our best to find out the rules, and follow them when we learn them. If an authentic spiritual master authorizes, then the minor rules can be compromised. Washing plates that one has eaten off of in a separate sink than the plates that Krsna has been offered is not a necessary rule for someone who's not initiated. It is optional. I posted this article mainly for those who might want to know the basics. I didn't intend to give a complete all-rule-included-guide.

 

Prabhupada encouraged his followers to drink milk, he never said to become a vegan. The fact is that one is not implicated in the karma of killing a cow by drinking milk, otherwise Prabhupada would have told people to become vegans. He must have known that those whom he encouraged to drink milk would have gone out and bought commercial milk especially in his time when veganism was less common. It is true that the commercial milk industry slaughters their cows and treats them inhumanely. But if I protest their milk, it isn't going to save any cows. The reason the cows are getting killed is because people are buying meat. Am I implicated in cow slaughter if I buy fruit from a farmer who owns a slaughterhouse? When I buy milk, it just means the cow gets milked more, and I'm helping her out becuase I'm taking her milk and offering it to the Lord. She gets spiritual benefit because her milk becomes prashadam.

Krsna doesn't accept carrots, so no matter what you are implicated in a karmic reaction if you eat them, but they're nowhere near as bad as mushrooms, onions, and garlic, what to speak of meat. If you offer carrots to the lord, it will not be accepted. If you offer milk to the lord, Krsna may choose to accept, depending on your level of love and devotion.

[bhaktajan]

vraja1 said:

Am I implicated in cow slaughter if I buy fruit from a farmer who owns a slaughterhouse?

 

Well yes. Of course you are imp[licated with a portion of residual dividends of ugra-karma [irregardless of the end purpose]. That is why ekadasi fasting is done.

 

The Bhagavatam explains this karmic connection that occurs to 3rd and 4th and 5th etc Parties-to-an-action.

 

And yes, Krishna explains in the Gita how we must preform occupational dharma fearlessly and with confidence --"but there is danger at every step in the material world".

---------------------------

vraja1 said:

Krsna doesn't accept carrots, so no matter what you are implicated in a karmic reaction if you eat them ...

Oh, this is mis-spoken: In formal Temple Pujari work: there is a prescribed/traditional menu of food stuffs that have been on the menu since time immemorial --coincidentally it was always local farms that supplied such foodstuffs for the mandira.

 

This is also mis-spoken: Foods such as carrots, mushrooms, onions, and garlic are avoided because of the most basic rules yoga: to control lusty & passionate inflamation; along with the advisement of ayur-vedic recommendations. There is no ugra karma for eating garlic [which I do not eat] --there is just the worry of tamistic results and of course the residual ugra-karma from eating it served at a meat selling establishment, akin to buying milk products.

 

The rules for offering foodstuffs to Krishna before eating are established and meant to be followed to perfection by orthodox temple residents --householders are free to best they can. Or the best that their spouse will settle for.

[cbrahma]

 

There are so many rules in the Vedic scriptures, that only someone who has read all the scriptures can follow all of them. We do our best to find out the rules, and follow them when we learn them. If an authentic spiritual master authorizes, then the minor rules can be compromised. Washing plates that one has eaten off of in a separate sink than the plates that Krsna has been offered is not a necessary rule for someone who's not initiated. It is optional. I posted this article mainly for those who might want to know the basics. I didn't intend to give a complete all-rule-included-guide.

 

Prabhupada encouraged his followers to drink milk, he never said to become a vegan. The fact is that one is not implicated in the karma of killing a cow by drinking milk, otherwise Prabhupada would have told people to become vegans. He must have known that those whom he encouraged to drink milk would have gone out and bought commercial milk especially in his time when veganism was less common. It is true that the commercial milk industry slaughters their cows and treats them inhumanely. But if I protest their milk, it isn't going to save any cows. The reason the cows are getting killed is because people are buying meat. Am I implicated in cow slaughter if I buy fruit from a farmer who owns a slaughterhouse? When I buy milk, it just means the cow gets milked more, and I'm helping her out becuase I'm taking her milk and offering it to the Lord. She gets spiritual benefit because her milk becomes prashadam.

Krsna doesn't accept carrots, so no matter what you are implicated in a karmic reaction if you eat them, but they're nowhere near as bad as mushrooms, onions, and garlic, what to speak of meat. If you offer carrots to the lord, it will not be accepted. If you offer milk to the lord, Krsna may choose to accept, depending on your level of love and devotion.

These complications conditions and exceptions are not just impractical they portray God as a small-minded petty policeman who's offended by trivia

[bhaktajan]

by cbrahma:

These complications conditions and exceptions are not just impractical they portray God as a small-minded petty policeman who's offended by trivia

 

Your statement is scrambled. God is in the details!

There is certainly Some-one who is a

"small-minded petty policeman who's offended by trivia" --we'll just all have to search out where in endless time and space this some-one may be found.

 

Tune-in, turn-on, be significant or bust.